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Collaborative and Social Interaction within Groups of Patrons in Academic and Public Libraries: Implications for Digital Libraries

Abstract
This Master’s thesis investigates patrons’ information-seeking behaviour in physical libraries. Information available to meet patron’s information needs, and constraints that limit the use of this information have been examined by a number of researchers in the last few years. However, there is a dearth of literature on the information-seeking processes, including the act of selecting books from shelves, and the kind of social interaction that may occur between patrons attending the library in groups. To address this gap we identified in the literature, this thesis used a qualitative method to investigate the behaviour of patrons when visiting libraries, and the way patrons within groups treat each other from the time they enter the library until they leave. 83 groups were observed in both public and academic libraries, totalling 217 participants. The observations and analysis of the study results increase our understanding of collaborative behaviour, group characteristics and other influential factors, such as location, time, physical environment, ambience and layout of the library. Our study also compared the findings with some previous work on similar concepts. Most findings highlight possible implications of social and book interaction in digital libraries, and emphasise the need to support more group collaboration among users of Digital Libraries, without limitations of shared time or location.
Type
Thesis
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
Alqurashi, H. (2014). Collaborative and Social Interaction within Groups of Patrons in Academic and Public Libraries: Implications for Digital Libraries (Thesis, Master of Science (MSc)). University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/8974
Date
2014
Publisher
University of Waikato
Supervisors
Rights
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